Granted
by Issac Blast
Summary: A collection of stories about people learning not to take wizardry for granted. There will be more later.. suggestions encouraged..
1. John

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about this story except the plot. Not even the names as they were only random choices with no background.**

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_Granted_

By Issac Blast

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"Hurricane Olivia's projected course has changed again and, instead of sweeping the east coast of Florida, its current path will take it inland along Georgia and Alabama. Landfall should occur within the hour."

For the family of three watching the emergency broadcast, it was a strike to their hopes. Being that they lived on the beach put their house at risk from the surge. But now the storm was heading straight for them. With no time for escape and no supplies for barricading the windows, they could do nothing but wait.

"Beth, honey, I need you to get some sleep. There's no point in watching this anymore," the father said to his daughter.

"OK, Dad," the girl replied as she turned off the set. "You want me to put the stuff in the hall?"

"Yeah, that'd be best." Since every room in the house had at least one window, they had chosen to huddle together outside the laundry room, as close to the center of the house as possible.

A little over an hour later, the family was doing just that when a sudden burst of wind slammed into the walls. Pictures fell of shelves and windows rattled in their frames as the gales tried to rip the house from its foundations.

~*~*~*~*~

"Is everyone ready?" called a jean-clad wizard in the middle of a large rune covered circle drawn in what seemed to be lines of pure light.

"The Quebec-Montreal team just Okayed," shouted another wizard in a second, smaller, circle joined to the first.

"New York-Philly checks out along with Milwaukee-Chicago," responded a third somewhere in the crowd.

"Hey, boss," the second wizard yelled again, "St. Louis is good, but Raleigh is short five."

"Domingue, Henderson, Jones! Find two others and report to the Carolina team!"

"Yes sir!" came the reply as five pops were heard over the cacophony of voices.

The head wizard raised her hand to her mouth and whispered a word, which caused a music note-shaped charm on it to glow. When she spoke again, her voice boomed across the courtyard.

"All right, people. We're prepped to start in one minutes time, so I want everyone to their places, now. You all know what's at stake here." Then, to the second wizard again, "Landreux, tell Philly that team Mobile-Jacksonville is ready and waiting."

~*~*~*~*~

As five hundred wizards simultaneously raised their voices to sing in the language all things understand, the winds began to swell with energy, the seas rose in tempo, and the entire universe seemed to lean in and listen.

Nature quickly yielded to the persuasive call of so many minds and mouths. Cold air high above Hudson Bay started to sink, flowing downward and over the warmer air rising to meet it. This buffer of frigid wind continued to fall until it planed out over New England as a front. Rushing along the east coast, it soon clashed with the hot oceanic front pushing over Florida. The swirling mass recoiled from it icy touch, then pushed back but to no avail.

After an epic struggle, the warm front lost its forward drive and took a more westerly path. The core of movement skirted less than a hundred miles from wind-blown shores before it fizzled down to a humble storm.

~*~*~*~*~

All of this the wizards saw as they poured their strength into the cold fronts southward flight.

~*~*~*~*~

Beth and her family had seen none of it, so when they awoke the next morning expecting not to have a home, they were overwhelmed to find no lasting damage to their house or any others in the immediate area. Their last fear was quelled when a smiling fifteen year old boy appeared out of nowhere and his younger sister cried out his name.

"Johnny!"


	2. Will & Merry

**Disclaimer: I own nothing about this story except the plot. The two characters represented in this story are under contract to the esteamed and omnipotent Elemarth(though they've never complained of it). They were leased to me unpaid by Elemarth for the explicit reason of being used in this story.**

_Asteriks** signify mindspeech  
Quotes"" signify normal speech  
Italics// signify thoughts_

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_Granted_

By Issac Blast

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_Stupid, stupid, stupid…_ he mentally cursed at himself, as if, by repeating the words, they would lose their meaning. Of course, he should have known better. As a wizard, words and their meanings are the very staple of his existence.

~*~*~*~*~

Today, Merry had decided that Will needed to 'expand his social horizon' and, to help him do so, dragged him off to meet some of her friends during their lunch period. Needless to say, it did _not _go well. Will didn't have a problem with the fact that they were all girls. Merry was his wizardly partner and only real friend and _she_ was a girl. No, the problems started when one of the girls, nice enough not to mention his quietness but slow enough to not see past it, asked a simple question.

"So, how long have you two been going out?" The impact was two-fold. Both Merry and Will reddened considerably, then Merry began to shout denial at the friend. Will's instinct told him to do so as well, but all that came out was a choked, "Hey!"

All conversation stopped at the sound and the present turned to look at him, surprised at hearing anything from the quiet boy. His eyes grew wide and tears started to form at their edges from the sudden attention. He turned and ran, not caring where he ended up. Behind him, Merry had started to yell again, but in a much less playful tone. By the time he got to the gate, he gathered his wits enough to pull out a prepared teleport spell for his house and disappeared in a flurry of sound.

~*~*~*~*~

"I'm sorry, I didn't know!" pleaded her friend. "I was just trying to make conversation!"

"Ugh! Forget it. I have to find him." With that, she left, following Will's disappearing back. After a minute of running, he vanished completely. Not around a corner, but in a clap of thunder. Merry instinctively knew where he had gone and did the same, arriving at his house only moments behind the boy.

"Will, wait! Will!"

*What?* he yelled at her in mindspeech, turning to face her at the same time. Merry gasped when she saw the tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Oh, Will," she said, holding her hand out in front, "what's wrong. Why did you run?"

*I'm tired. I'm tired of the looks, the stares, people picking on me just because I can't talk like everyone else. They look at me like I'm weird, like I'm a frea…*

"NO!" The yell startled Will enough that he stopped his mental rant to glance at her, wondering at the outburst. His questioning gaze caused the girl to continue.

"I told you I wouldn't let you do this to yourself. You _can_ talk. You were just talking to me, so don't give me any of that. And you're a wizard, now. When you became a wizard and took the oath, you said that you would put aside your own pain for the pain of others, and now look at you, feeling sorry for yourself. You have a beautiful voice and, in fact, I feel privileged to be the only one who can hear it."

Through her speech, she felt his emotions flowing into her. First surprise, then irritation, and finally boldfaced wonder.

*Really? You like my voice?* he asked, his eyes shining with something else now.

"Yes, I do. But I'd like it more if you'd stop insulting yourself every chance you get. Okay?"

*Yeah, and, uh, thanks…*

"Don't mention it. Besides, what're friends for?"

_I really have a great friend_ he thought to himself as Merry grabbed his hand to drag him back to school. Then another thought appeared, unbidden…

_She likes my voice!_

_

* * *

An ENORMOUS apology goes out to Elemarth for making her wait not days, not weeks, but MONTHS for this story. Then, I want to send her an enormous THANK YOU! for beta-ing the piece and giving me advice I'll have to remember for future stories as well._

_R&R People!_

~So Says Issac


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